November 2020 Progress Update!

Hey everyone!

We've got some new progress to show off for the upcoming Pure Onyx release, which should be ready within the next week (probably by the end of the month) for the Inner Circle tier.  Here's a brief summary of the more significant changes you can expect:

• We'll be adding the Splicer Boss for combat testing 
• The enemy wave system will continue to function past Wave 50
• Massive improvements to input performance, especially for non-60 FPS systems
• Adding boss encounter music + a boss health gauge
• Adding background/ambient sound support

We're currently working on an H scene for the Splicer Boss, and with some luck we can get that into the wider release in December.  We've made quite a few improvements to Onyx's fun bits for this one, which I'll explain more about below :D.

Topics for this Update!

• Splicer Boss Preview
• Larva Worm Enemy WIP
• UI Animations!
• Onyx's Rig Improvements
• APL's Input Improvements
• Localization Progress

Splicer Boss Preview

Mr. Kittyhawk, TK, LewdK, and I have been getting the Splicer Boss ready for the release over the past couple of weeks @_@.  His first iteration is just about ready, and I have an animation preview to share :D 

Street Lord Wraxe Animation Preview Video!  

Currently his only skills are slash attacks, a sliding thrust (has long range), and a summon ability (the shout in the video) that summons a pack of Thugs and Runts, but we will be adding a grapple skill for him in the December release.  We'll also be adding a polished death animation then, since we haven't gotten it wrapped up yet.

This boss exhibits our first test of enemy friendly-fire, and it's pretty humorous to watch him plow down his minions to get to Onyx :D.  For later iterations, we had the idea that he could actually grab a runt and throw or kick him at her (Runt Punt!) for a ranged attack.

Larva Worm Enemy WIP

We're making good progress on another new enemy!  

These guys differ from existing enemies in that there are a few variations to them based on their scale.  They will likely normally be found in packs, with the variations exhibiting different behaviors and attacks, contributing to what could be a chaotic encounter if they aren't shut down quickly.  Area of effect skills will be most effective against them, as long as the player risks getting in the middle of the pack.  

Some ideas for their attacks include spitting acid that damages clothing durability (thanks Inner Circle guys for that), leaping like popcorn at Onyx so that she has to punch them out of the air, and for the big fatties, rushing at Onyx in a flurry-type rage.  We've also considered the idea of the big ones inflating on death and exploding like a bomb.  It may be fun if they sometimes spawned by falling from above onto Onyx as well :D.

TK finished the rig for these guys just a couple of days ago, of which you can check out a small demonstration that he made here.  He's currently working on a more docile and sucker-like alternate head model.  We decided the "teeth out" look will probably be for the bigger ones once Onyx aggros them :D.  

UI Animations!

I've been looking to add more 3D animators to the team, and during my search I got a response from an artist that happens to be both experienced with Unity and great at 2D animation for user interfaces.  This happens to be something we really need, so I brought him on to experiment!  Everyone welcome Brum to the team :D.

Over the past week he's been working on animation designs for our upcoming UI revamp.
He and AltairPL have been working together to figure out integration specifics, and so far things are going quite smoothly.  I've included a GIF (low FPS unfortunately) showing off his WIP functioning in Unity.

On a related note, I plan on making a push in December to work toward more complete UI designs for the remaining menus so that Brum can continue onto those.

Onyx's Rig Improvements

TK has been making a number of improvements to Onyx's rig while we've been working on the next H scene.  This mostly came about from a need for her to take in telephone poles, but it's been a great test of all of the rigging work he's done up until now as well.  Some of the improvements include:

• Manual hip and thigh corrective adjustment layer (allows for detailed editing of her joints when automated skinning solutions produce iffy results)
• Joint-based abdomen distension (allows for fine detail and variety of shapes) 
• Stylized inflation of lips 
• Ability to widen groin area to match size of whatever she's taking in @_@

AltairPL's Input Improvements

A lot of APL's coding work this month involved development of his input wrapper -- a layer around Unity's input system that we can easily build on and that can communicate with our other game systems and database.  It allows for new features that will show up in upcoming releases.  Here are some of the highlights of its development:

• Added localization (languages) for input commands 
• Added binding at runtime (will allow for rebinding controls) 
• Created new input test environment (shown in screenshot above)
• Integrated input commands with our database

Another related area that APL worked on was decoupling input from graphics.  The results of this will show up in the next release in a few days. 

• No more dropped input.  Jumps and attacks always fire now.  
• Power attack (heavy punch), performed by holding punch, is less sensitive now.  Should be harder to accidentally perform (annoying since this plants Onyx in place).
• Onyx should now never moving after you've released the movement key/button.
• Onyx will no longer fire off a jump or attack when you exit the menu

Keep in mind these improvements don't make combat great yet.  We have a hefty list of things to do in that area, but I think everyone will notice the game feeling significantly smoother after these fixes.

Localization Progress

AltairPL has slowly been adding localization capability to the different UI components.  He speaks Polish, so we're naturally using that as our test language :D.  It's a pretty big process that includes converting images to dynamic text, ensuring fonts work for the language, and so forth.  You can find a couple of screenshots of his work in that area in the gallery at the top!